Of course the metaphor that light, like a tree, grows and blossoms and
puts forth fruit, is a very strong one. And its very violence and
incongruity help its force. Fruit is generally used in Scripture in a
good sense. It conveys the notion of something which is the natural
outcome of a vital power, and so, when we talk about the light being
fruitful, we are setting, in a striking image, the great Christian
thought that, if you want to get right conduct, you must have renewed
character; and that if you have renewed character you will get right
conduct. This is the principle of my text. The light has in it a
productive power; and the true way to adorn a life with all things
beautiful, solemn, lovely, is to open the heart to the entrance of Jesus
Christ.
God's way is--first, new life, then better conduct. Men's way is,
'cultivate morality, seek after purity, try to be good.' And surely
conscience and experience alike tell us that that is a hopeless effort.
To begin with what should be second is an anachronism in morals, and
will be sure to result in failure in practice. He is not a wise man that
tries to build a house from the chimneys downwards. And to talk about
making a man's doings good before you have secured a radical change in
the doer, by the infusion into him of the very life of Jesus Christ
Himself, is to begin at the top story, instead of at the foundation.
Many of us are trying to put the cart before the horse in that fashion.
Many of us have made the attempt over and over again, and the attempt
always has failed and always will fail. You may do much for the mending
of your characters and for the incorporation in your lives of virtues
and graces which do not grow there naturally and without effort. I do
not want to cut the nerves of any man's stragglings, I do not want to
darken the brightness of any man's aspirations, but I do say that the
people who, apart from Jesus Christ, and the entrance into their souls
by faith of His quickening power, are seeking, some of them nobly, some
of them sadly, and all of them vainly, to cure their faults of
character, will never attain anything but a superficial and fragmentary
goodness, because they have begun at the wrong end.
But 'make the tree good' and its fruit will be good. Get Christ into
your heart, and all fair things will grow as the natural outcome of His
indwelling. The fruitfulness of the light is not put upon its right
basis until we come to understand that the light is Christ Himself, who,
dwelling in our hearts by faith, is made _in_ us as well as '_unto_ us
wisdom, and righteousness, and salvation, and redemption.' The beam that
is reflected from the mirror is the very beam that falls on the mirror,
and the fair things in life and conduct which Christian people bring
forth are in very deed the outcome of the vital power of Jesus Christ
which has entered into them. 'I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in
me,' is the Apostle's declaration in the midst of his struggles; and the
perfected saints before the throne cast their crowns at His feet, and
say, 'Not unto us! not unto us, but unto Thy name be the glory.' The
talent is the Lord's, only the spending of it is the servant's. And so
the order of the Divine appointment is, first, the entrance of the
light, and then the conduct that flows from it.
Note, too, how this same principle of the fruitfulness of the light
gives instruction as to the true place of effort in the Christian life.
The main effort ought to be to get more of the light into ourselves.
'Abide in Me, and I in you.' And so, and only so, will fruit come.
And such an effort has to take in hand all the circumference of our
being, and to fix thoughts that wander, and to still wishes that
clamour, and to empty hearts that are full of earthly loves, and to
clear a space in minds that are crammed with thoughts about the
transient and the near, in order that the mind may keep in steadfast
contemplation of Jesus, and the heart may be bound to Him by cords of
love that are not capable of being snapped, and scarcely of being
stretched, and the will may in patience stand saying, 'Speak, Lord! for
Thy servant heareth'; and the whole tremulous nature may be rooted and
built up in and on Him. Ah, brother! if we understand all that goes to
the fulfilment of that one sweet and merciful injunction, 'Abide in Me,'
we shall recognise that there is the field on which Christian effort is
mainly to be occupied.
But that is not all. For there must be likewise the effort to
appropriate, and still more to manifest in conduct, the fruit-bringing
properties of that indwelling light. 'Giving all diligence add to your
faith.' 'Having these promises, let us cleanse ourselves from all
filthiness of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of the
Lord.' We are often told that just as we trust Christ for our
forgiveness and acceptance, so we are to trust Him for our sanctifying
and perfecting. It is true, and yet it is not true. We are to trust Him
for our sanctifying and our perfecting. But the faith which trusts Him
for these is not a substitute for effort, but it is the foundation of
effort. And the more we rely on His power to cleanse us from all evil,
the more are we bound to make the effort in His power and in dependence
on Him, to cleanse ourselves from all evil, and to secure as our own the
natural outcomes of His dwelling within us, which are 'the fruits of the
light.'
III. And so, lastly, notice the specific fruits which the Apostle here
dwells upon.
They consist, says he, in all goodness and righteousness and truth. Now
'goodness' here seems to me to be used in its narrower sense, just as
the same Apostle uses it in the Epistle to the Romans, in contrast with
'righteousness,' where he says, 'for a good man some would even dare to
die.' There he means by 'good,' as he does here by 'goodness,' not the
general expression for all forms of virtue and gracious conduct, but the
specific excellence of kindliness, amiability, or the like.
'Righteousness' again, is that which rigidly adheres to the strict law
of duty, and carefully desires to give to every man what belongs to him,
and to every relation of life what it requires. And 'truth' is rather
the truth of sincerity, as opposed to hypocrisy and lies and shams, than
the intellectual truth as opposed to error.
Now, all these three types of excellence--kindliness, righteousness,
truthfulness--are apt to be separated. For the first of
them--amiability, kindliness, gentleness--is apt to become too soft, to
lose its grip of righteousness, and it needs the tonic of the addition
of those other graces, just as you need lime in water if it is to make
bone. Righteousness, on the other hand, is apt to become stern, and
needs the softening of goodness to make it human and attractive. The
rock is grim when it is bare; it wants verdure to drape it if it is to
be lovely. Truth needs kindliness and righteousness, and they need
truth. For there are men who pride themselves on 'speaking out,' and
take rudeness and want of regard for other people's sensitive feelings
to be sincerity. And, on the other hand, it is possible that amiability
may be sweeter than truth is, and that righteousness may be hypocritical
and insincere. So Paul says, 'Let this white light be resolved in the
prism of your characters into the threefold rays of kindliness,
righteousness, truthfulness.'
And then, again, he desires that each of us should try to make our own a
fully developed, all-round perfection--_all_ goodness and righteousness
and truth; of every sort, that is, and in every degree. We are all apt
to cultivate graces of character which correspond to our natural
disposition and make. We are all apt to become _torsos_, fragmentary,
one-sided, like the trees that grow against a brick wall, or those which
stand exposed to the prevailing blasts from one quarter of the sky. But
we should seek to appropriate types of excellence to which we are least
inclined, as well as those which are most in harmony with our natural
dispositions. If you incline to kindliness, try to brace yourselves with
righteousness; if you incline to righteousness, to take the stern,
strict view of duty, and to give to every man what he deserves, remember
that you do not give men their dues unless you give them a great deal
more than their deserts, and that righteousness does not perfectly allot
to our fellows what they ought to receive from us, unless we give them
pity and indulgence and forbearance and forgiveness when it is needed.
The one light breaks into all colours--green in the grass, purple and
red in the flowers, flame-coloured in the morning sky, blue in the deep
sea. The light that is in us ought, in like manner, to be analysed
into, and manifested in, 'whatsoever things are lovely and of good
report.'
And so, dear friends, here is a test for us all. Devout emotion,
orthodox creed, practical diligence in certain forms of benevolence and
philanthropic work, are all very well; but Jesus Christ came to make us
like Himself, and to turn our darkness into light that betrays its
source by its resemblance, though it be a weakened one, to the sun from
which it came. We have no right to call ourselves Christ's followers
unless we are, in some measure, Christ's pictures.
Here is a message of cheer and hope for us all. We have all tried, and
tried, and tried, over and over again, to purge and mend these poor
characters of ours. How long the toil, how miserable and poor the
results! A million candles will not light the night; but when God's
mercy of sunrise comes above the hills, beasts of prey slink to their
dens and birds begin to sing, and flowers open, and growth resumes
again. We cannot mend ourselves except partially and superficially; but
we can open will, heart, and mind, by faith, for His entrance; and where
He comes, there He slays the evil creatures that live in and love the
dark, and all gracious things will blossom into beauty. If we are in the
Lord we shall be light; and if the Lord, who is the Light, is in us, we,
too, shall bear fruits of 'all righteousness and goodness and truth.'